US close: Stocks close higher on promising news from trade talks

By Iain Gilbert

Date: Friday 22 Feb 2019

(Sharecast News) - US stocks closed higher on Friday as investors eyed more news from trade talks between the US and China ahead of next week's truce deadline.At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.70% higher at 26,031.81, while the S&P 500 was up 0.64% at 2,792.67 and the Nasdaq moved 0.91% firmer to 7,527.54.

The Dow closed 181 points higher as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He met Donald Trump at the White House and managed to carve out a deal on currency in their ongoing trade war.

Trump said he now expects to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping "soon" in order to work out the finer points of the deal.

"Probably in Mar-a-Lago, probably fairly soon," said the President.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "It would appear that there's been some real progress made in the talks, at least enough to extend the truce and avoid further tariff hikes. This is a major risk for markets and is helping to feed into the improved risk appetite we've seen this year.

"If Trump's team can get this over the line before next week's deadline, it could provide a major boost although European investors may get a little anxious at the prospect of the US President then turning his attention that way."

In corporate news, shares in file sharing and storage company Dropbox were down 8.36% lower at the close as the company's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat expectations but guidance for the first quarter and full year disappointed.

Elsewhere, shares in Kraft Heinz had sunk 27.46% at the end of trading after it posted a quarterly loss of nearly $13bn, slashed its dividend and said it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Online shipping and postage company Stamps.com had tumbled 57.77% after it said its key partnership with the United States Postal Service had ended.